Felty and friends take the game to the children
April 25, 2008
By Todd Hummel
As Reported In The Daily Item
SELINSGROVE—Back when Tiger Woods first began to make his mark on golf in the late 1990s, there was an explosion of people taking up the game.
Almost 10 years later, participation in golf is down and some people at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club wanted to do something about it.
SVCC golf professional Greg Felty and amateur golfer Dan Mahoney, Northumberland, with help from golfers Dr. John and Barb Pagana, Selinsgrove, have begun running a youth golf clinic at the country club.
“Participation in youth sports is down across the board, not just in golf,” Felty said. “We had about 28 kids here last week and I think 20 of them hadn’t played Little League even. This is a good way to get the kids out doing something.”
The clinic began last Thursday and meets every Thursday for the next four weeks from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the range along Mill Road right past the entrance to the Susquehanna Valley Country Club, though Felty said if the response continues to be good, they’d do more clinics.
“It’s great if you don’t know anything about the game. It’s great if you have a bit of an understanding,” Felty said. “We’re starting right with the basics and developing a swing. We’d like by the end of the clinic to introduce them to the course a little bit.”
Attendees of the clinic don’t even need any clubs as the country club will provide equipment and the best part, everything is free of charge.
Though Mahoney tried to deflect the attention, Felty said that he was instrumental in getting the clinic started.
“Dan came to me and suggested we do this and I thought it was a great idea,” Felty said.
“I just wanted to do something to encourage junior golf,” Mahoney said. “We’ve all talked about doing things to help junior golf and this is something to do for the community. We’d like to do more things in the future.”
The clinic starts with group instruction with Felty, then Felty along with Mahoney and both Paganas help each golfer individually with the lesson.
Students range in age from 11 to 16 and come from the Selinsgrove, Shikellamy and Sunbury Christian schools.
“I kind of feel bad, though, because we only went into three schools, because I think we could have gotten a lot of kids out for this,” Mahoney said. “But we just didn’t have the space. Hopefully we can expand it next year.”